Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used

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To verify that the motherboard works as advertised, the board was run through our standard benchmark suite. In most cases, the results are presented for the motherboard under review as well as a different similar-class motherboards for performance comparison purposes. The benchmark tests used should give you a good understanding of the board’s capabilities for both office and gaming use so that you, the reader, can make a more informed purchasing decision.

Test System Setup
Motherboards Intel Z170-based systems
ASUS Z170-A

Intel Z97-based system
ASUS Maximus VII Formula

Intel X99-based systems
ASUS X99-A
CPU Intel Z170-based system
Intel Core i7-6700K
(4.0GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 40 x 100MHz Base Clock)

Intel Z97-based system
Intel Core i7-4770K
(3.5GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 35 x 100MHz Base Clock)

Intel X99-based systems
Intel Core i7-5960X
(3.0GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 30 x 100MHz Base Clock)
Memory Intel Z170-based system
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules
(1600MHz, 16-18-18-1T, 1.225V)

Intel Z97-based system
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 modules
(1600MHz, 9-10-9-27-1T, 1.525V)

Intel X99-based systems
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules
(2133MHz, 15-17-17-35-2T, 1.225V)
Hard Drive Intel 730 240GB SSD
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD
Sound Card On-board sound
Video Card ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB
CPU Cooling XSPC Raystorm D5 Photon RX480 V3 WaterCooling Kit
Corsair Hydro Series™ H100i Extreme Performance CPU Cooler
Video Drivers NVIDIA 335.23
Power Supply Corsair HX750
Operating System Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Test Setup Explanation

The 64-bit Windows 7 based test bench used For Intel Z170 LGA1151 board testign includes an Intel Core i7-6700K processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. For the Z97-based board testing, an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 16GB of DDR3-2400 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive were used in the test system. For Intel X99 LGA2011-V3 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-5960X CPU, 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. Using the selected components gives us the ability to demonstrate the motherboard's capabilities rather than that of the components themselves.

Benchmark Tests used for evaluation:

  • SiSoft Sandra 2014 SP3
  • LinX Intel Linpack Benchmark v0.6.5 with Intel Linpack version 11.1.3
  • Maxon Cinebench R15
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